


Take My Hand

by mythras_fire



Series: Friday Night Chats Plot-Bunny Factory [40]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alex Manes Needs a Hug, Alien Biology, Communication, Developing Friendships, FaceTime cuddles, For Science!, Gen, Hands, Michael Guerin Is A Good Bro, Nebulous Well-Adjusted Future, Plants, all the softness, impromptu ASMR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:42:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28320333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythras_fire/pseuds/mythras_fire
Summary: One night in particular, during a FaceTime call, Michael lay sprawled across the bed in his Airstream, having practically just talked himself hoarse about the injustices of group projects in an online environment when Alex reached out with his hand to the edge of the screen so that from Michael’s side it looked like he was patting the top of his head and said in a gentle, teasing voice, “There, there.”Michael released a big sigh, “Yeah, okay there, Baymax,” closing his eyes with a smile as he remembered for a moment what the touch of Alex’s fingers running through his curls felt like.Soothing. Comfortable. Safe.
Relationships: Michael Guerin & Alex Manes
Series: Friday Night Chats Plot-Bunny Factory [40]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1292960
Comments: 39
Kudos: 40
Collections: Michael Guerin is a Grower





	1. take my hand and show me where we're going

**Author's Note:**

  * For [annunziatina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/annunziatina/gifts).



> For my bestie, annunziatina, who introduced me to ASMR and gives the best long-distance hugs in the whole world. This is for you, babe, Merry Christmas! 🤟🏼
> 
> Story and chapter titles belongs to the song of the same name by Dido:
>
>> See my eyes, they carry your reflection  
> Watch my lips and hear the words I'm telling you  
> Give your trust to me and look into my heart...  
> So sit on top of the world and tell me how you're feeling

It started in the way things tend to do. Off-the-cuff. In the moment. A passing thought realized.

Michael had started taking classes online through NMSU in Agricultural Engineering, Alex had resumed going away on recruiting trips. Both of them invested in iPads for their work (okay, well, Isobel might have nearly beaten Michael over the head with one disguised as a belated birthday present, but once she told him it meant he could keep in touch with Alex better, he perked right up), and began to build a texting rapport mixed in with FaceTime calls on the nights that Alex was out of town. 

Alex would check in to see how Michael was doing in his classes (he was acing them, naturally), and Michael would ask him if he’d found any promising new recruits (which was really just Michael’s way of inviting Alex to blow off steam raving about some of the recruits and ranting about the bureaucracy of it all without feeling like he was complaining out of hand). Alex made sure to return the favor by asking what Michael was currently learning about so that he could gush and vent about his proposed innovations and his classmates.

One night in particular, during a FaceTime call, Michael lay sprawled across the bed in his Airstream, having practically just talked himself hoarse about the injustices of group projects in an online environment when Alex reached out with his hand to the edge of the screen so that from Michael’s side it looked like he was patting the top of his head and said in a gentle, teasing voice, “There, there.”

Michael released a big sigh, “Yeah, okay there, Baymax,” closing his eyes with a smile as he remembered for a moment what the touch of Alex’s fingers running through his curls felt like. 

Soothing. Comfortable. Safe.

He reopened them to find that Alex had repositioned himself so that the iPad was resting on his chest as well, and he was looking at Michael with his head cocked to the side in that contemplative way he had. He was making more soothing motions with one hand, then the other, down the sides of Michael’s screen aka head, long musician’s fingers slowly curling and unfurling as he whispered “there, there” and other words of which Michael could only pick out the consonant sounds as they clicked off his teeth and lips.

His tranquil gaze relaxed Michael to the point that his entropy began to change and the chaos inside his head quieted down for the night. His breathing smoothed out and the longer he watched those fingers move in and out of his field of view, the more he started to feel these phantom tingling sensations running from the base of his skull down the length of his arms.

“Hey, that tingles,” he replied, suddenly bone-tired after a long day of studying and working. He normally fell asleep in the middle of reading or writing something, his mind still a whirlwind, his body having to make the call for him by just shutting down wherever he happened to be inside the Airstream. Winding down like this was new but he liked it.

Alex just smiled and moved a finger across the screen as if he were tracing the line of Michael’s temples. “Yeah?” He whispered.

Michael smiled goofily, “Yeah. Did you develop telekinetic-ghost powers when I wasn’t looking?” With the iPad sitting so close to each other in the quiet of the desert and Alex’s hotel room somewhere air conditioning wasn’t a necessity and the volume turned up so they could hear each other clearly, Michael could just make out faint little crinkly sounds that seemed to be coming from the movements of Alex’s pajama sleeves as he moved his arms.

Alex huffed a quiet laugh, “Yes, Guerin, apparently if you spend enough time around aliens, their powers begin to rub off on you.” His eyes followed the path his fingers took as he traced the features of Michael’s face. “We’ll know I’ve reached the saturation point when I start smelling like rain, too.”

Michael’s eyes had drifted closed again and he hummed his approval through his smile. “Sounds good to me.” He was falling asleep right there in the middle of their call he was so relaxed. That was also new. “Then ev’ryone’ll know.”

All he heard on the other end were the soothing sounds and motions Alex was making for a long moment. The tingling sensation had traveled down into his torso, spreading out like a warm hug until even his toes tingled the slightest bit in this new-found stillness.

“And what will they know, Michael?” whispered the voice that he heard in his dreams. 

“That we’re cosmic,” Michael whispered back like it was a secret he’d be happy to shout from the roof of the Crashdown. He didn’t hear the quiet gasp on the other end of the line as he turned onto his side, or the giggling as he hugged the iPad to his chest.

Alex sang him a lullaby as he slipped into the best night of sleep he’d had in a very long time.


	2. touch my skin and tell me what you're thinking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For annunziatina. Happy 2nd Friendiversary! 💜
> 
> This chapter was written for this prompt from DaughterofElros: "how about Alex asks [Michael] to plant sit one time when he has to be away for several days, and Alex comes back to the house plant he was worried about being all better and utterly flourishing." A group of us all wrote something based off this same prompt and posted the fics/ficlets/art today in the collection mentioned above!
> 
> This is my take on the prompt and I attempted to write a smattering of viable alien science (for which I spent allll week researching human science instead of doing any actual writing. Nope, all of that got done today 😆) but maybe strap on your disbelief suspenders just in case ;) kthxbai

Alex looked up from his project fiddling with the new features that came with the most recent software update on his thermal imaging tablet when the FaceTime call came in from Michael. He smiled, tapping Accept. This was definitely his favorite time of night whenever he was away on a recruiting trip.

“How’s my baby?” Alex asked, making himself more comfortable on the hotel bed, propping the iPad up on his stomach to mirror the position Michael was already displaying. It was a cute little routine they’d come by naturally over the past few months. He set the tablet down by his hip in case he got fidgety during their call, usually when his mind wandered down hallways that were off-limits right now.

“Oh, I’m doin’ alright, thanks, spent most of the day reading the _Proceedings from the 17th International Scientific Conference Engineering for Rural Development_ ,” Michael replied with a cheeky grin, “how was your day, sweetiekins?”

Alex rolled his eyes even as he grinned back, “Not you, Guerin, you’re not eleven inches long and—”

Alex only realized what he’d walked into the moment after Michael’s eyes lit up with that gleam of mischief that was all his own but by then it was too late to take it back. 

“Well, I can think of one part of me that—” 

“You wish!” Alex laughed. “I was talking about my spider plant and you know it.”

Michael winked at him, “Fine, be that way. She’s doin’ great, don’t worry. Sometimes plants just need a little TLC.”

“Hey, I’ve been giving it TLC,” Alex pouted. He was still kinda miffed that he couldn’t even seem to take care of a houseplant properly. His mom had a green thumb and spider plants had adorned sunny-adjacent spots all around the house when he was little. He’d picked one up recently at the farmer’s market because he wanted to surprise her with it as part of their efforts to get reacquainted with each other now that they were all out from under his father’s malevolent shadow. 

“There, there,” Michael said softly, patting the top of his screen, which made Alex smile and relax. They’d somehow developed several conversational memes that they used now and then when the other one needed light-hearted cheering up, and it made something in Alex’s chest loosen. That was something that friends did with each other, right? Good friends. Really good friends.

Alex picked up the tablet.

“I swear I did what the lady at the plant table told me to do,” Alex insisted as he rebooted the operating system to run it with the new features. “I set it in my living room in between my piano and yo—um, the guitar, out of direct sunlight, and watered it every day and it looked fine for the first few days until it… didn’t,” he trailed off, half-frustrated, half-concentrating on checking the parameters scrolling on the screen. He pointed it at the hotel mini-fridge for starters and got back a bluish box so that was good. 

“Ah, so that’s why it was so saturated when you dropped it off.”

Alex looked back at the iPad, cheeks ablaze. “Uh, aren’t you supposed to water plants daily?”

“Depends on the plant and the season. Outdoor plants that are at the mercy of mother nature, and especially ‘round these parts in the summer, sure, they’ll suck up whatever moisture they can catch whenever they can catch it. But houseplants are pampered things, and aside from heating/air conditioning drying them out, they don’t tend to need constant watering. But again, depends on what you’re trying to grow,” Michael explained easily, a soft smile gracing his lips, eyes alight with the joy of sharing knowledge that someone else had requested. 

He’d make such a good teacher someday, Alex thought absently. So caring and genuinely enthusiastic about the subject matter he was imparting.

“Oh,” Alex couldn’t hide the shame from his voice. He felt like an ignoramus for not knowing how often to water a goddamn houseplant, but Michael wasn’t looking at him like he agreed. He was looking at him like he’d happily answer any question Alex threw at him until one or both of them fell asleep. Which, judging from how relaxed Alex always felt when talking to Michael during these late-night calls, might well be sooner rather than later.

Alex had to look away from that encouraging smile, so he pointed the tablet at the lamp on the nightstand to his left and was satisfied with the temperature reading that displayed on the screen. Okay, now that he’d gotten the extremes taken care of, it was time for something mid-range.

“Hey, man, it’s okay, we’ll get your spider plant back in action in no time,” Michael was saying. The soothing tone he’d adopted like he was treading very carefully so as not to hurt Alex’s feelings had not escaped his notice and he sighed inwardly. What had he done to deserve this man? _Friend_. Just friends. 

Alex couldn’t stop a yawn so he pulled one hand away to cover his mouth. Dang, what time was it? The clock in the upper-left-hand corner of the tablet said it was eleven o’clock. Well, that explained the yawning.

“See? She’s gonna be a beauty, Alex, I’m callin’ it now. Your mom is gonna love it.”

When he dragged his eyes away from a thermal image of his left foot through the covers his hands followed suit and he ended up looking at Michael through the tablet screen.

“What the—” he whispered in shock.

Michael Guerin ran hot. Alex knew this from blissfully personal experience. What he had not known, however, was that up close and personal, Michael positively **glowed** from the heat he produced, visible in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. 

Michael had shifted on the tiny bed so that Alex could see the headboard shelf behind his head where he’d been plant-sitting the present for Alex’s mom in a cute little terra-cotta pot for the last three days. The spider plant which had, three days ago, been a sad anemic little thing, weepy limbs all folded in on themselves like closed clamshells.

“What?” Michael asked, a hand coming up to paw at his face. “Do I have something on my face? Hey, is that your fancy thermal imaging camera? Do I still run hot?” He chuckled, amused by his own joke.

Alex barely heard what Michael said, his tired brain too startled by what he saw. He peeked around the side of the tablet at the iPad to see that the spider plant now looked not only strong and healthy, spread-open leaves standing tall and sturdy, but they weren’t reaching towards the light source that was to their left during the day. 

They were reaching towards Michael. 

Because he was radiating heat. 

And heat emits light. 

The spider plant was essentially treating Michael like an infrared heat lamp and boy did it look like one happy camper.

Alex could hardcore relate.

“Earth to Alex. Come in, Alex. Over,” Michael said, holding his hand up in front of his mouth as if he were speaking into the receiver for a ham radio, even going so far as to make crackly static noises.

“You’re… you’re glowing,” was all Alex could muster in a small, wondrous voice. Why was this new alien revelation hitting him so damn hard? He yawned again.

Michael finally seemed to get with the program and noticed Alex wasn’t joking around. Maybe he was tired, too.

“Am I?” he held up his hands to examine them but all Alex saw were two gently glowing golden outlines moving around in a mesmerizingly soothing manner, making Alex’s eyelids feel heavy and his spine tingle from memories of when those hands used to rove his skin. Reverent. The song he’d written for them that played like a broken record somewhere in the back of his mind scratched over to the line, _I’ve begun to heal in all the places your hands have been…_

“Yeah, spidey’s using you as a… hea’ lamp.” Alex mumbled, having officially reached the edge of the too-sleepy-to-censor-what-you’re-saying precipice, ready to fall forward into the abyss. His hands drooped over his chest, the tablet falling closed, eyes drifting shut of their own accord. “You’re so beau’iful.”

Alex missed the epic blush that bloomed across Michael’s face in the stillness after Alex’s sleepy confession. He also heard a fair bit of stammering and throat-clearing that he wouldn’t remember the next morning.

What he did remember upon waking, however, was the lullaby Michael sang for him as he drifted off to sleep. He remembered because it was a Disney song, “Feed the Birds” from _Mary Poppins_ , one of Michael’s favorite songs from the few good memories he had in the group home.

Alex hummed the song to himself off and on for the rest of the day, a soft smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [This is the cool science video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSozrAIfigE) that helped me the most when doing my research this week, from the awesome peeps at SciShow on YouTube.


End file.
